Rock Band

In Real Life

While My Guitar Controller Gently Weeps

7:00AM February 2, 2012 | Matt Gilgenbach

As both a game developer and a gamer, I am sad to see the guitar controller fading into obscurity. Guitar controllers are a fun and unique interface to control games, but unfortunately, it seems as though their time may have passed. I reject that. More »


In Real Life

A Rock Band-Style Game For The Blind

10:30AM January 12, 2012 | Kirk Hamilton

Music isn’t a visual art-form, and many amazing musicians, from Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles to Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Roul Midón have created incredible sounds despite (or possibly even enhanced by) their inability to see. More »


News

Rock Band Now Has A Twenty-Minute Song

10:00PM December 29, 2011 | Luke Plunkett

Because Rock Band’s existing library just isn’t punishing enough, Harmonix will be releasing Rush’s epic 2112 as downloadable content for the game over the next week. More »


News

Viacom Ordered To Pay $383 Million To Rock Band Makers

4:00AM December 29, 2011 | Brian Crecente

Viacom is fighting an order to pay Rock Band makers Harmonix Music Systems $US383 million, or a bit more than half of the money sought by the former shareholders in a long-running legal dispute over unpaid bonuses. More »


In Real Life

Terrible Gaming Gifts For The People You Hate

12:00PM December 22, 2011 | Kirk Hamilton

The Holidays are upon us; Chanukah is underway, Christmas is almost here, and it’s time to get those last-minute gifts. We’ve given you ideas for people who already have all the games they want, for people who like science and other thinky pursuits, and for your teenage son who seems pretty normal but who you don’t talk to. All those lists, and so many more. More »


In Real Life

How Rock Band Was Saved From Catastrophic Failure

Flag
10:00AM November 29, 2011 | Mark Serrels

Rock Band celebrated its fourth birthday last week and, to celebrate, Harmonix has released some videos that go into detail on the process of creating the game, and the struggles involved in actually shipping to retail. As a huge Rock Band fan with over 400 downloadable songs on my PS3 hard drive, I find this whole thing fascinating. Last week was the story of how Rock Band came to be, but this story is about how hardware issues almost doomed the franchise to catastrophic failure. More »


Nintendo

Rock Band: The Untold Story Of Robot Goat Legs

9:20AM November 23, 2011 | Mike Fahey

In October of 2007, Rock Band hit rock bottom, crashing its car into a tree in an alcohol-soaked haze. It was then it knew it had to turn things around. On November 20, 2007, Harmonix introduced it to the world and changed everything. More »


News

Harmonix Not Doing Too Bad

4:30PM November 4, 2011 | Owen Good

A couple of weeks ago, Dance Central and Rock Band studio Harmonix was being advised–by someone from the company that sold it off–to make “the world’s first immersive shoot-’em-up,” using Kinect. Today, the firm reported it is doing juuuuust fine by sticking to the rhythm genre. More »


News

Should You Buy Rocksmith? No.

1:00AM October 19, 2011 | Kirk Hamilton

Today marks the release of Ubisoft’s Rocksmith, a music game that may seem a bit on the late end of the Great Music Game Craze of 2009. All the same, it comes with a tantalising promise: it allows players to plug a real guitar into their game console via a 1/4 inch-to-USB cable and play real notes along with the game. More »


Mobile

Harmonix’s VidRhythm Adds Support For User-Generated Content; Animal-Lovers Rejoice

8:50AM September 24, 2011 | Kirk Hamilton

Hopefully all you iOS users have had a chance to play around with Rock Band developer Harmonix’s goofy new music-type app-thing VidRhythm. If you haven’t, I recommend giving it a go. More »